


Love on the Down Low

by padfootfreak14



Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:22:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23684581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padfootfreak14/pseuds/padfootfreak14
Summary: Hey there! I absolutely love your writing, so thank you so much for sharing it with us! :) I hope this doesn't come off as stupid, but I'm going through this phase where I have a major crush on one of my co-workers and your fics are my escape. Could you possibly do one where the reader has a huge crush on Owen and makes a fool out of herself while trying to keep cool and on the dl about it? Maybe he overhears her talking to the girls about it or something. Thank you for your time! :)
Relationships: Owen Grady/Reader
Kudos: 9





	Love on the Down Low

Your first reaction when you’d been told you were being assigned to work at the raptor paddock had been confusion and the strong contemplation to quit right then and there. You hadn’t even known there was a raptor paddock, surely they would’ve advertised a new attraction. Finding out that the raptor paddock wasn’t open for visitor viewing and was actually a side project made you nervous. You wondered what the point could be of having the raptors if not for viewing but they wanted you to go work there with them so that was what you did.

You were grateful that the relocation to the paddock set outside the park also came with relocation to new living arrangements as well. It would have been a chore to travel to work from across the park where they’d set up everyone else. Most of the raptor paddock workers were situated together and only two of the bungalows sat apart from the rest. You got one because you were the only full time female at the paddock so they offered you the privacy of not living in a bungalow surrounded by a bunch of rowdy men. You had appreciated the gesture more after you went to a few of their after work parties and realized that their neck of the woods was never quiet and sometimes you just needed some silence.

The second bungalow belonged to who you considered your boss, at least he was who you listened to considering that InGen only showed up to decide something when they felt like it. Technically he wasn’t your boss, he was just the head trainer/handler. By head you also meant that he was really about the only one that went anywhere near the raptors because the only other people that weren’t absolutely petrified of them were you and Barry. You only knew where Owen’s bungalow was because it was in the same vicinity as yours but still far enough away to be reasonably private. Neither you nor Owen ever invited the rest of the crew over, preferring your privacy and the ability to leave a party when you wanted to instead of when the last person left.

Early on you had made a point of only going to the parties if you knew Barry was going to be around the whole time or if Owen was there. A small part of it was that you liked his company but the main part stemmed from one particular party early on where some of your coworkers, who had since been relocated or fired, thought it would be fun to keep loading you with drinks. The next think you remembered was waking up at home with painkillers and a bottle of water next to your bed. When you finally got to work, late as hell, one coworker gave you a wary look and warned you that Owen was on the war path. You assumed it was because of your tardiness and tried your best to avoid him, which worked fine until he cornered you.

“I am so sorry about how late I was today,” You started trying to apologize.

“Don’t worry about that. How’re you feeling?” In seven words he managed to confuse you beyond reason. You’d been hours late and he was telling you not to worry about it? He by right ought to be ripping you a new one and giving you shit for being at a party when you knew you had work the next day. “Y/N!” And now you’d completely spaced out, even better.

“Uhm…alright I guess?”

“You guess? Honesty kind of confused right now.” You unfortunately didn’t get the answers you were hoping for just then, Owen got called off for something else and that was the end of your conversation. You weren’t surprised that he stayed too busy to continue the conversation, even if he did keep glancing wherever you were.

“Y/N!”

“Hey Barry,” You were starting to wish you’d have just given up and stayed home, better than the weird looks and the wide berth everyone was suddenly giving you.

“Owen talk to you yet?”

“Sort of? He asked me how I was feeling then he got called away. It was really weird, I thought he was going to rip me a new one for being so late. Everyone here is being so damn weird.”

“Let me ask you something, how much do you remember about last night?” Oh god what did you do?

“Uh…people giving me way too many drinks.”

“That’s it?”

“And waking up this morning. What the hell did I do? I don’t even know how I got home.” And what did it have to do with Owen? He hadn’t even come to the party. You distinctly remember being disappointed that he hadn’t, more disappointed than you’d readily admit in fact. “Seriously, what the hell happened? I come in and hear that Owen is on the war path but it obviously wasn’t because I was late.”

“You aren’t the one he had a problem with.”

“I am so not in the mood for vague answers.”

“You all but answered your own question. They thought it would be fun to see how drunk they could get you and see if one of them could take you home. They didn’t expect Owen to decide he’d show up after all. Any of the ones they wouldn’t let him fire aren’t working around here anymore we’ll put it that way. All I can tell you is I thought he was going to kill one of them. Don’t ask me what was said because I won’t repeat it and you won’t get Owen to either.”

“How did I get home?” It was already bad enough, clearly you’d been very wrong to trust your coworkers and you didn’t even want to think about what may or may not have been said let alone what could’ve happened if Owen hadn’t shown up. “What now?” You grumbled, noticing Barry staring over your shoulder. “Owen.” Like you hadn’t already wanted to crawl in to a hole and disappear at the thought of seeing him after you found out that he’d essentially had to come to your rescue the night before. Worse yet that Barry ditched you almost immediately after Owen appeared. “Something tells me you’re the one that took me home,” You said softly as Owen leaned against the rails next to you.

“Well you were out cold, I wasn’t just going to leave you there. You had your keys on you so I took you back and put you to bed.”

“As absolutely humiliating as it is hearing about all of this and all. Thanks.”

“What are you thanking me for?”

“Looking out for me, defending my honor or whatever. Making sure I got home safe and leaving me some painkillers, not giving me shit for showing up half way through my shift. Barry told me that you tried to fire all of them.”

“I don’t want people working here that can’t respect the other people they work with and you shouldn’t be in a position that you have to worry about unwinding with everyone. It was a warning to the rest of them that I’m not putting up with that shit here.” He wouldn’t say any more than that, not to you. He wouldn’t tell you just how seriously he’d threatened them for getting you that drunk in the first place or what he’d threatened to do if he ever heard about them trying to put their hands on you again. He definitely wasn’t going to say that if Barry hadn’t reminded him that he was carrying your unconscious form he would have beaten one of them within an inch of their lives for implying that he had less than honorable intentions for taking you home. He liked having you around, he didn’t need ass holes making you uncomfortable or afraid to leave your house when you weren’t at work. He took responsibility to make sure that everyone else treated you like a part of the team and nothing more, especially considering you probably did more work than most of the men there.

“Still, I really appreciate it. Even if I think everyone here is afraid to come near me now.” You left out that you thought part of the issue might’ve been avoided if you had started refusing the drinks, which you also hadn’t done because you didn’t want to seem rude or like a killjoy. You also didn’t mention that you didn’t really plan on going to any more of the parties by yourself anyway. It was kind of like how Owen didn’t mention that if he heard you were planning on attending one of the parties he’d make a point of showing up to remind everyone to behave themselves. If you so wanted to go home with one of them, though he really hoped you never did, then by all means you were welcome to but he wasn’t going to let them try and take you home when you were drunk.

“They’ll calm down eventually. Probably still jumpy after I gave them a few words about letting their coworkers try shit with you.”

“Aw, my hero,” You teased. “I’ll have to repay you sometime, if some group of girls are getting you wasted I’ll be sure to drag you home before they can try anything.”

“I’ll hold you to it,” He laughed, nudging you with his shoulder. “You feeling alright though?”

“I’m feeling as well as can be expected given the hangover I woke up with, honest. Just a bit hungry, I kind of booked it once I woke up and showered. Smelt like beer.”

“Come out with us when we’re done, Barry feels like Margaritaville. Just the three of us.”

“That sound really good and normally I’d hate to interrupt bro-night but I’m starving so I’m in.”

That wasn't the first night that it had been just you, Owen and Barry hanging out and it wasn’t the last. It made sense that the three of you spent the most time together considering that you were the three who also worked most closely with the girls and formed a natural sort of friendship. Mind you after the incident or lack thereof, Owen had gotten quite a bit more protective of you so outside interaction was more of a hassle than you wanted to bother with anyway. Not to say he suffocated your social life, just that you weren’t terribly inclined to be best friends with your other coworkers and Owen just gave you another internal excuse. Your work relationship didn’t help your biggest problem however.

Your massive crush on Owen was absolutely nothing new. It has started as just a little ‘wow he’s gorgeous’ sort of thing that turned in to a ‘he’s gorgeous and a really great guy’ sort of thing. That was why you’d started trying to think of him as your boss, try and discourage yourself from all of that nonsense. It had failed spectacularly, in part because you knew he really wasn’t anything more than just your coworker and in part because you’d heard plenty about some of the other paddocks. As if anyone would’ve noticed anything going on way out here. That just made some of the fantasies worse, thinking about the seclusion, about how close the two of you lived and the distance away from the others. Either way the crush only got worse after Owen’s help at the party.

I was so unbelievably difficult to deal with. On one hand surely nothing could ever come of it if you didn’t say anything to him. On the other hand, what if you did say something to him and he didn’t feel even remotely the way that you did? Best case scenario you did a terrible job playing it off and work was absolutely awkward. You loved working with the girls, loved working with Owen, you didn’t want to screw that up. No, you fully intended to keep your mouth shut and try to be cool about it and hope that it went away. Just be cool and keep it on the down low and he’d never need to know. Maybe you were a little diluted to think that you could just ignore the way butterflies starting fluttering around in your stomach every time he went out of his way to look out for you or the way that some nights he’d just show up with dinner or invite you over to cook out.

Owen didn't really help matters. You could never quite be sure if he noticed how flustered he got you. Couldn’t be sure if he noticed how you reacted those nights he was halfway to drunk, in celebration of a perceived victory with the girls, and he wrapped his arms around you from behind and kissed your neck before you went home for the night. Did he notice how your face heated up when he’d pulled you close to him and tell you how you did a great job that day? It wasn’t like Owen ever drank enough that he forgot the night before. Sometimes it felt like he did things like that just because of how you reacted, like he knew that you had feelings for him and was having fun with your reactions. You refused to really think that he knew and he was doing things maliciously to play with your emotions, you knew that wasn’t Owen. You had to keep trying to remind yourself that he could just be affectionate when he was a bit tipsy and you were right there for him to be affectionate with.

You wholeheartedly blamed Owen for the entire crush issue. How were you supposed to just work with him and not have your head and your heart filled with all these romantic notions when he went around looking out for you, taking you out for lunch or dinner when you had a rough day, being there for you all the time, the tipsy kisses? It was grossly unfair of him and keeping all of it inside was starting to drive you out of your mind. But you had no one to talk to about it, you kept to yourself and only spent time with your coworkers. Aside from Owen and Barry you didn’t know any of them well enough to talk to about personal things and even if you did this would be the last thing you’d talk to them about. Naturally you couldn’t talk to the person you had a crush on about having a crush on him and given how close Owen and Barry were you couldn’t really talk to Barry about it either.

It was an issue for you and any more you felt like you were making more of a fool of yourself every time you were around Owen. You’d get distracted watching him and end up bumping in to something or tripping, twice he’d had to catch you before you fell in to the paddock, which you still insisted would have just resulted in you slamming in to the rail not actually falling in but the point remained. More than once Barry had teased you about the grin on your face that you sometimes got around Owen and you had to be grateful that he didn’t tease you around Owen or you probably would have given yourself away just from the embarrassment of it.

Talking to the girls wasn’t anything new. You did it, Barry did it and so did Owen. The girls of course couldn’t really respond but they always seemed to be listening and whenever anyone asked about it you all claimed that it helped with the bond between the three of you and the pack. There was a possibility that was actually true, it seemed like it most times at any rate. There was something else that you and Owen shared. You discovered it one day after basically pouring your heart out to the girls, treating them more like a best friend than caged dinosaurs. Of course Owen had chosen that time to be around, any hope you’d had that he hadn’t heard you was blown to hell though not quite how you’d expected.

“I was starting to wonder where you were hiding at.” Owen laughed, making you jump and nearly scream when you realized he was standing at the door to the cage.

“How long have you been there?!”

“Long enough to see that I’m not the only one that prefers the girls to other people.” Surely if he’d have heard what you hoped he wouldn’t then he’d have said something or hinted at it. Then again maybe he was just saving you the embarrassment.

“They listen better, and they don’t interrupt.”

“They also don’t have to give you their opinion when you didn’t ask for it.”

“Exactly, why talk to human beings when you can just vent to your raptors.”

“You coming over tonight?” Well that was an abrupt change of subject

“Are you asking me to come over or reminding me that I’m supposed to? Because if you’re reminding me I don’t remember that ever being a thing.” You did try searching your memory for any recent point at which Owen had asked you to come over or any point that the two of you had come to agreeance on it.

“Suggesting that you might want to, but if you’re busy you don’t have to.”

“He says like I ever go out anywhere or do anything that isn’t somehow related to work. Am I getting dinner out of this?” That was a stupid question, you knew you’d get dinner out of it. Owen rarely if ever invited you over without providing food.

“Of course you’re getting dinner,” Owen scoffed. “Pardon me for thinking that one of these days you might venture out and make friends with other people.”

“I don’t need other people, I don’t have time for that and I’m perfectly happy with what I’ve got now.”

“Me, Barry and coworkers you barely talk to?”

“You, Barry and the girls. People are exhausting and you’ve said yourself that they’re overrated.”

“Because they are.”

“Exactly, so I have no need to go out and make friends with other people. All they’d do is take up time I’d rather spend around here.”

“I think I’ve turned you in to me.”

“If that’s the case I’d like to know when the height is gonna kick in,” You laughed. “What time should I show up?” Riveting conversation as always, but the work day wasn’t over quite yet and you’d been away long enough.

“Whenever you feel like same as always.” By that he meant he’d wait until you were there to actually start cooking unless you gave him a time you wanted to come over. You’d sit around, have a few drinks and chat while dinner cooked and enjoy a comfortable silence during dinner except you complimenting his cooking. It was a well-oiled machine of a system and if your coworkers knew about it they’d probably be back to cracking jokes about the two of you again. They’d only given up because they couldn’t get a reaction from you or Owen and either figured the jokes didn’t bother either of you or that there actually was something going on and that made it not as funny. It also wouldn’t surprise anyone if that was the case, at any rate it would explain why Owen never joined them in trying to pick up other park workers and tourists and why he had developed the tendency of snapping at them if they took their joking too far.

As always, you had a hard time deciding when to go over Owen’s. You’d showered and changed as soon as you’d gotten back home but you didn’t want to show up early and seem too eager to keep spending time with him but you didn’t want to show up later either. Most times you waited it out until you got too antsy to keep sitting around. You didn’t realize that you didn’t last very long before leaving for Owen’s until you got there and realized that he didn’t seem to be around, at least not outside.

“Owen?” You called, knowing him you wouldn’t be surprised if he’d fallen asleep as soon as he got home.

“Early bird,” Came your answer. You immediately came to regret turning to see where he was.

“Where are you clothes?!” And why did you always ask probably obvious questions when he started getting you flustered. Considering he was standing there soaking wet in nothing but a towel it was a pretty unnecessary question. At least this time you managed to not trip over something or give yourself a new bruise bumping in to something else. The first time you’d caught him right out of the shower you sprained your wrist.

“Burned ‘em, decided to become a nudist.”

“Nudists don’t wear towels.” You shot back, thinking you were being quite the smart ass until the towel smacked you in the face. “Owen!” You squealed, clenching your eyes shut as you threw the towel back in his direction. You could hear him moving but you weren’t about to open your eyes again.

“You started it,” You finally heard him laugh. You jumped when you felt his hand on your arm. “You can open your eyes.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Like you haven’t seen it all before.” As if having seen it all before made you react any differently.

“Maybe you should shower when you get home like a normal person when you know I’m supposed come over, instead of waiting, and I wouldn’t keep having to see you naked!”

“Not my fault you showed up three hours before you usually do. I think it was intentional.”

“I am not that early!”

“Do you even know what time it is?” Owen teased. He did have you there, you weren’t actually sure what time it was and you really had just come over when you got sick of sitting around. So it was actually really possible that you’d just gotten antsy really quickly and ended up awkwardly early. “You don’t do you?” He laughed.

“Since I’m so inconveniently early maybe I’ll just go home.” You shot back, suddenly irritated at how much fun he was having teasing you. Stupid jerk, telling you to come over and not even telling you a time then making fun of you for apparently being too early. Like you could ever tell him about your crush when he teased you for showing up early.

"Don't put words in my mouth, I didn't say a damn thing about you being inconvenient. Where is this even coming from?" You'd been fine all day, cracking jokes with him and acting just like you always did. Now you were snapping at him out of nowhere and he didn’t like it. Owen went out of his way to try and make sure you always felt comfortable and that you were suddenly so on edge and uncomfortable with him bothered him a hell of a lot more than he wanted to admit. The way you pushed away from him shocked him enough that he could only watch as you all but ran off.

Your face felt like it was on fire and you felt like complete idiot by the time you locked your door behind you and slid down against it. It was bad enough you reacted so dramatically to something that was completely normal with Owen. The two of you teased each other all the time, he teased you for some of your reactions and you teased him for never getting anything done on time. You knew he wasn’t teasing you maliciously but you went and turned around and not only snapped at him over it but then you turned tail and ran off. You managed not to make a fool of yourself any time you’d accidentally seen him naked, managed not to lose it when you were out and girls were flirting with him. You even managed to not show how much it upset you any of those times, or when your coworkers tried to get him to go out and pick up women. But here you were on the brink of tears in your dark bungalow because you’d managed to make an ass out of yourself over something that didn’t even matter at all.

Owen, once he’d recovered from the shock of having you absolutely lose it over something he still wasn’t sure why it was such a big deal, thought he’d just wait you out a bit. Maybe you were just having an off day and he’d manage to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Maybe you just needed to go calm down and you’d come back over a bit later. A few hours later you still hadn’t come back and in all honesty it worried him. It wasn’t like you to lose it like that or for you to not even at least send him a message letting him know you were okay or that you weren’t coming back over or something. He considered the possibility that if you were legitimately upset with him for teasing you about being early, you’d consider him showing up crossing some boundary but he at least needed to check on you.

He’d been keeping an eye on you since you started, he’d known you were plenty qualified for the job but you being the only female made him uncomfortable. For the most part the guys had been fine, but he knew how they could get and that party had proved it to him. Maybe if there had been more women at the paddock it would’ve been less of an issue but they’d always been hard pressed to find anyone that wanted to work at the paddock in the first place let alone get them to stay and in Owen’s observation it seemed like a lot of the women that had come out even for a little while didn’t seem comfortable being so outnumbered. He’d taken responsibility for making sure you were comfortable there from the start and made damn sure no one caused any problems for you even if it gave your coworkers some ideas on what exactly was going on.

He knew he wasn’t the only one that heard the cracks they made about the two of you but you’d never said anything to him that said that it bothered you. Owen also knew that didn’t mean that it didn’t bother you, just that you hadn’t said anything like you often didn’t. You just had that penchant for not saying anything and as long as it didn’t end up like whatever was up today he didn’t really mind you keeping things to yourself if you felt like you should. Owen was a bit guilty of playing along with the jokes, if they thought something might be going on between the two of you or if they perceived that he had some sort of claim on you then they let you be. It just made it easier and at the same time saved him from them trying to drag him out all the time. He liked it with just the two of you or occasionally going out with Barry. But with just the two of you it was relaxing, a chance to wind down and enjoy pleasant company.

Another thing Owen was sure of was that he was grateful for the spare key he had to your place. After a few times of one of you or the other misplacing your keys somewhere you’d just swapped spares. If one of you had a few too many one night there didn’t need to be any fishing around in their pocket to get them home and to bed. Today it almost felt like invading your privacy, letting himself in when you didn’t answer the door. Logical that you wouldn’t answer the door when you weren’t there, which he’d have realized sooner if he had looked where your jeep was usually parked before he went inside. He highly doubted that you’d have gone far, let alone to the park. He worked off the assumption that something was bothering you and that left one place that he knew you’d have gone. If he was wrong he’d be trekking through the jungle for no reason, if he was right he’d get things smoothed over and get a ride home with you.

Once you’d calmed yourself down enough to get back to rational thinking you were overwhelmed by the need to vent. That brought you back to your previous issue of having few people to vent to, one of whom you’d just made an idiot of yourself in front of and you still couldn’t talk to him about it anyway. Everyone would be gone from the paddock by now save the overnight security personnel who wouldn’t give you any trouble for being there and they’d leave you alone. It was a short enough drive to get there at least, and a better chance of solitude. You knew it would only have been a matter of time before Owen realized you weren’t planning on coming back over and stopped by to make sure everything was okay. Even if he realized where you’d left for you would be able to hear him coming. As expected security essentially ignored you and the girls came right over toward the gate when you stepped in to the cage.

Much like you had lost track of time earlier and ended up at Owen's so early you didn't realize how long you'd sat at home calming yourself down before you went to the paddock. You wouldn't really have cared if you did know what time it was you just wanted some time to vent before you inevitably had to face Owen again. If he didn’t show up here he’d probably be waiting for you until you came back, you highly doubted he’d just leave you alone.

“Hey girls,” You called softly, pulling the stool over in front of the gate but staying far enough away to be safe. All the time you’d been working with them and you still couldn’t get over how beautiful they were. You envied how simple life was for them, no having to worry about crushing on your coworker. Just eat, hunt, sleep, it was all just instinct for them. You supposed that you could’ve tried to just run on instinct but that sort of thing got people in trouble more often than not. Owen managed to get away with it, half the time it seemed to you like he operated on the same instincts the girls did, or as he put it ‘gotta eat, gotta hunt, gotta *insert vaguely obscene hand gesture.’ There you went thinking about him again instead of doing what you’d come out here for…which was venting about him to his raptors.

“See, even this is stupid! I can’t stop thinking about him so I’m going to come here and rant about him.” You had to remind yourself to not raise your voice when you heard the crunch of gravel somewhere within earshot. It was bad enough you’d up and come here after hours to talk to the raptors, you didn’t need the security guys having a laugh over your liking Owen. “You girls are lucky you know. You don’t have to worry about boyfriends or liking someone or anything like that. You can just live your lives like genetically engineered animals in a cage. So maybe the caged part isn’t so nice but believe me I think I might take a cage over constantly trying to not make an idiot of myself. Like today! Today I showed up way to early and then I flipped out when he teased me about it and ran off. He wasn’t even trying to be mean he was just being him and all I’m ever going to be is the awkward girl that overreacts and he constantly has to keep an eye on because I’m too stupid not to get myself in bad situations. Like the only reason we even started spending so much time together is because I’m an idiot and I messed up at that party.” You probably could’ve continued ranting quite a while longer if you hadn’t been interrupted.

“Say that again and so help me god.” The tone of voice was startling enough on its own but you hadn’t realized you weren’t alone and as a result your surprise had you jumping off the stool, tripping on the leg of it and landing flat on your ass in front of the gate. You half hoped that one of the girls would grab your arm and chew it off so you wouldn’t have to open your eyes and face him, but that would just be another scolding for being stupid. But of course you weren’t that lucky either way.

Owen wasn’t surprised to show up at the paddock and find you there, when he approached the cage he had been sure you would’ve noticed and turn around but you just kept right on talking to the girls. You didn’t even seem to notice that they turned their heads to acknowledge that he was there when he slipped through the door to the cage. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard you talking to the girls, though he quickly realized that you weren’t just chatting at them about your day. He felt a little guilty for continuing to listen in after he realized how personal you were being with them but you were bound to realize he was there anyway if he left. It wasn’t exactly breaking news to him, he wasn’t blind to the way you could act around him by a long shot. You weren’t clumsy, any time he’d seen you trip on something or end up hurting himself he knew what distracted you. Even if he was that oblivious Barry had mentioned it to him more than once.

The part of your little rant that set him off was the end. He’d been bothered that you actually thought you were nothing to him but an awkward responsibility. He looked after you because he cared about you and didn’t want you to have to worry about anything. He took care of you because he liked seeing you smile and wanted you to feel important and valued. His rage built that you thought that he could even generally consider you stupid and he wasn’t sure who he wanted to lay in to when you acted like you were to blame for him having to step in at that fucking party. It had been years and it still kept coming back to set him off. He’d be damned if he’d stand there and let you talk like it was your fault that some pieces of shit had been trying to take advantage of you. That was where he drew the line. He hadn’t meant to startle you so badly but he probably should’ve expected it with how damn jumpy you’d been lately. As he walked over to pick you up out of the wood chips the girls all just looked at him like really, this is the female you picked? Anymore they were about as bad as Barry and everyone else with the insinuations.

You felt like it looked stupid to keep your eyes clenched shut, but when Owen put you back on your feet you kept them cast at the ground. You’d felt stupid and humiliated years ago but you felt it twice as badly now. You hadn’t been talking to the girls long enough that you considered that he could’ve missed you talking about your crush. You weren’t sure if it was worst that he heard about that or if it was worse that he heard your comment at the end. You’d been keeping your feelings about it to yourself for years, even then you’d known Owen well enough to know how he’d react to you saying something like that. Now it was twice in one day you found yourself trying to hide the fact that you were practically in tears.

"Where are your keys?" It felt like your entire body was shaking as you fished them out of your pocket and let Owen take them. That he managed to lead you back to your jeep without you tripping over something seemed like a miracle. From the corner of your eye you could see that Owen seemed to be shaking as well, but more from the anger he was exuding than anything else. “Don’t ever let me hear you say something like that again.”

“Owen,” You tried to mutter.

“Just fucking don’t! God damn it Y/N!” Having Owen getting so agitated wasn’t helping you calm down any. “You think it was a coincidence that they invited you out there when they knew I wasn’t planning on being there, when they knew I had things I needed to get done? They wanted you there because they knew you’d show up alone, they knew they could keep giving you drinks and you’d take them because you don’t like feeling like you’re being rude. They didn’t invite you to be nice they did it because they thought they’d be able to get you loaded, do what they wanted to you and you wouldn’t say anything because you’d be embarrassed and feel like it was your fault in the first place just like you’re doing now. You want to know why I went off on every damn one of them?”

“I imagine you plan to tell me anyway.” You managed, a sick feeling settling in your stomach again at the reminder.

“Because every fucking person there and only two of them did a damn thing to help you, I get there after they called me and the rest of them tried to act like nothing was going on.” It was just as clear as it had been then, staying late at the paddock trying to finish a report before he went home. It had been a great excuse to avoid his coworkers again but had he realized you were going he would’ve ditched the report sooner or insisted he needed your help. He already didn’t trust a handful of the crew and regardless of whether or not Barry was there Owen didn’t want you there. When he got the first phone call from Chris he claimed to be too busy, assuming it was just a request for him to come join the party. The phone rang again a few minutes later and it was Barry elaborating that Owen needed to get out there and deal with things before they turned in to a real issue.

It had been a short call, obviously Chris and Barry had been trying to avoid calling attention to the fact that they’d called him. Owen was assuming that he’d get there and deal with some ass holes that couldn’t take no for an answer. Irritation turned to rage when he pulled up and saw you looking about ready to pass out with Chris and Barry standing guard and making sure no one went anywhere near you. His demand to know what the hell was going on was returned with refusal to meet his stare and barely muffled laughter by the ass holes he had fired by the time you came in the next day. They would have been in for one hell of a fight if he hadn’t been more concerned with getting you home and making sure you were okay.

“Come on Grady, leave her there. She’s been having some fun with us. We’ll make sure she gets to work tomorrow, won’t be much use on her legs but we’ll get her there” He got a broken nose and cracked jaw for that before Owen had his own warning.

“Any of you try to touch her, try to go near her again and you’ll have a god damn reason to be afraid of the raptors.” He hadn’t been joking in the least. If he didn’t beat them within an inch of their lives himself he’d let the girls take a piece out of them. By the time he’d finished threatening them you were out, dead weight as he carefully lifted you in to his arms. He’d gotten halfway back to the jeep when another taunt made him stop.

“I see how it is! We do all the work so you show up and decide to take first dibs.” If he’d have already had you in the jeep, if Barry hadn’t reminded him that you needed him to take care of you… Owen had never wanted to kill someone more than he had at that moment, even Hoskins had never managed to set him off that badly. Just as soon as he had you buckled in he was on the phone, ensuring that by morning this would be an issue of the past and he could at least give you that. He wished he’d have been there sooner but he had to focus on the task at hand. It made him uncomfortable to be reaching in to your pocket to find your keys when you weren’t even conscious. It was a glaring difference between them and him, that he didn’t even want to touch you to get your keys.

“You woke up when I put you in the bed, started screaming and fighting me like your life depended on it. I slept on the couch until the morning.” Much of the anger had faded from his voice but you couldn’t quite place the tone it held now. Owen had hoped it would be easy enough to get you in to bed once he had the door open. He’d only just set you down on top of the covers and moved to get your boots off when you jerked awake. As soon as you saw his shadow at the foot of your bed and saw him reach for you it set you off. He’d needed to grab your wrists to keep you from hurting him or yourself until he manage to calm you down enough to realize that it was just him. He hadn’t mentioned it to you the next day any more than he did that he spent the night on your couch to make sure that you were okay the rest of the night and because he wanted to make sure that no one else tried to show up. When he’d woken up in the morning he left the painkillers and water. Barry had made sure that someone dropped your jeep off which left him no reason to wake you up. Hopefully you’d just sleep away most of the afternoon and stay home so at the very least you didn’t have to be present for the hell he was going to unleash. It hadn’t worked out like he wanted it to but at least you’d missed the worst of it.

You didn’t remember that, Owen showing up to the party, waking up and trying to fight him off. Had you really been aware enough of what had been going on to instinctively try to defend yourself? Even after you attacked him Owen stayed with you the rest of the night and you hated that you couldn’t remember anything. He was right about how you would have reacted had you woken up in anyone else’s bed, naked and confused. You probably wouldn’t ever had told anyone, even Owen who you trusted with most things. You absolutely would’ve blamed yourself over it.

"You okay?” You heard him question softly. You hadn’t said any more than that one short sentence and his name since he found you at the paddock and you weren’t really feeling up to words now either. You offered a halfhearted shrug and tried to keep yourself from curling in on yourself. You wouldn’t put it past Owen to pull the car over if you let on the turmoil you found yourself in. You hadn’t realized that he’d apparently been driving long enough that he was pulling up to his place, you’d entirely missed passing your own. When Owen got out it was probably a good thing that he took the keys or you likely would’ve just locked yourself in.

You knew better than to try and just sit in the car, Owen was already impatient with you and the way he opened your door warned you that he wasn’t above removing you from the jeep himself. Just the way he was standing there made you feel trapped, the open door behind you and Owen directly in front. You weren’t entirely sure what he was playing at until he tilted your head up to force you to look at him. You knew that he knew it made you uncomfortable, if the way your body tensed didn’t give it away then the way you kept trying to pull your head away would have. He wasn’t usually this forceful about getting you to do something, then again you weren’t usually this combative about it either. You knew what he wanted but you couldn’t make yourself give it to him. You also knew that the only reason he let go of you was so he didn’t end up hurting you, or with how your luck had been you’d have tried to jerk away and smashed something in to the door frame.

The other part of why he just gave up and stopped trying to get you to meet his eye was that it wasn’t like you could go anywhere. He had your keys which meant you couldn’t take off in the jeep and even if you tried to leave on foot you couldn’t get in the door he’d locked again on the way out. Owen was hoping you wouldn’t run off again, he didn’t feel like playing games with you. He knew that you knew he’d heard what you were saying to the girls, there wasn’t any point in you trying to act like it didn’t happen. All you were doing was making it more obvious. If you really wanted to pretend like you didn’t have feelings for him and like he hadn’t heard you say it out loud then you should’ve just tried to act natural instead of like he’d caught you out on something you thought you should hide.

“First of all, I’ve never thought you were an idiot. Secondly, if you’re going to act childish now that I heard you talking to the girls you should’ve considered being less obvious about it. All that did was confirm what I already figured.” He wasn’t going to spend all night trying to get you to realize he wasn’t trying to make things weird. If that just made you realize that he’d known for a while and didn’t make it weird fantastic, but he was hungry and now that he’d finally gotten you back over he planned on making dinner. Whether you stayed against the car looking like a fish out of water was your choice.

You were very tempted to do just that, hide out next to your car and hope that he’d just let you go home and pretend none of this ever happened. Obviously he had no intention of doing so, and on top of that apparently you’d failed miserably about being low key about your massive crush on him. You ended up settling for sitting sideways on the bench of the picnic table with your face buried in your knees. You couldn’t even be sure what about this day you felt the most idiotic about but it was all tying your stomach up in knots. You heard Owen walk over and set something next to you but you waited until you heard him walk away again to lift your head and find the beer sitting next to you.

“Really fucking cute Owen!” You shouted, wherever the hell he went…probably in the kitchen so the yelling likely wasn’t necessary. You could hear him laughing either way so obviously he heard you. Owen considered that the beer would either flip you out or get you talking. “Asshole!”

"Don’t know what you’re talking about, you always come over and drink all my beer.”

“You drink more of it than I do! And then you turn in to a grabby drunk.”

“I’ve never heard you complain, you know you like it.”

“You’re lucky you have my keys you know!”

“Because you’d go and sit alone in your room too lazy to make dinner?” You felt your body involuntarily tense up when Owen came back out and sat down in front of you. “Don’t start that shit with me again,” He warned softly, turning your head back to face forward. “Come on, you don’t have any reason to be like that with me.” The hand you didn’t have clutching the beer bottle found itself being wrapped in his. You managed to keep your eyes downcast as you took a few long drinks as if the drink was going to give you a sudden burst of confidence.

“Owen!” You scolded when he grabbed you and pulled you on to his lap. You felt your face heat up from the way you ended up having to straddle him to avoid kneeing him. If it was to get you to look at him all he succeeded in getting you to do was bury your face in his chest which in turn prompted him to wrap both arms around you. “God I hate you.” You muttered.

“I don’t think the girls will be too happy to hear that you were lying to them.”

“Stop bringing it up!” You whined

“Stop avoiding it Y/N.”

“What’s there to avoid? I’ve made an ass out of myself multiple times today, you heard me tell the girls that I like you and apparently I’ve just been completely obvious about it the entire time.”

“You have been, you aren’t clumsy until you get distracted and it didn’t take a hell of a lot to realize you only do it around me. Wasn’t gonna bring it up if you didn’t want to say anything about it.”

“How long?” You grumbled.

“Since you started tripping on everything because you can’t stop staring,” Owen laughed. “About the time I started realizing that was the same reason you kept getting so giddy.”

“Ugh!” You grumbled again, snapping your head up when you had your own realization “I knew all that half-drunk affection crap was on purpose! And the getting way too close all the time!”

“You mean like this?” He asked with a grin before leaning in to press his lips against the base of your neck. A brief moment of irrational thinking had you believing that he was just playing games with you and doing it for a reaction. As if sensing the new tension Owen’s lips moved up your neck. “Or were you hoping for this?” He added before pressing his lips against yours. “You’re overreacting again,” He sighed when you all but shot off his lap.

“Maybe you should just worry about dinner,” You mumbled, quickly walking away. You didn’t go farther than the edge of the water, realizing as you flopped down that your hair had wood chips still stuck in it. Owen watched you rush off deciding to leave you be for the time being before he actually ended up burning dinner or had you running away from him again. He got the feeling that he might’ve gone in to it a bit fast and it would be better to give you some time to clear your head. Once dinner was done and set out he finally came over to get you. Dinner was expectedly eaten in silence, each of you frequently glancing at the other until you felt you caught his eye one too many times and kept your head down the rest of the meal.

“I look after you because I care about you not because I don’t think you can handle yourself. And yeah, all the affection was on purpose, kept everyone else at the paddock from getting ideas about you and I liked the way it made you smile. Okay? I’m not doing it to tease you or make fun of you and the only reason I’ve never said anything about knowing is because if you weren’t gonna say anything I figured you didn’t want to or you didn’t want it to screw with work or whatever. I know it bothers you when everyone starts running their mouth about us.”

“It bothers me because they treat it like a huge joke! Like the idea that we could possibly be together is the funniest thing they’ve ever heard. Am I even subtle about anything?!”

“Not to me you aren’t, they just give us shit because we’re always together not because they think we’d be a hilarious pair. You think anyone would be surprise if we went in tomorrow holding hands and making out every chance we got? Actually don’t answer that because I think you think they would be and they wouldn’t. Half of them think we’re just trying to be slick about it.”

“But we aren’t together.”

“We act like we are, we have for a while. You’re just so used to it that you don’t notice it anymore, everyone just assumes it’s a thing and they know better than to say anything.”

“Why not, they run their mouths about everything else?”

“Because they know it isn’t any of their damn business if we’re just friends, if we’re dating or if we’re fuck buddies. And they know if they start running their mouths they’ll have to deal with me, they’ve been through that once I don’t think they’re in a hurry to do it again.” He almost regretted saying it because he knew exactly what he’d just implied. He wasn’t sure if you would be upset at the implication that he was essentially handling stuff like that without your knowledge so that you wouldn’t have to deal with it or even know about it. But he knew how you started worrying about things and how bad it hit you when you started getting stressed. He’d been keeping it from you for a while how seriously most of your coworkers thought that there was something more than friends going on but if you didn’t even want to admit that you had feelings for him he could only imagine how you would’ve taken that. You already thought they said it as a joke. When he moved over to your side of the picnic table he half expected you to immediately move away.

What time you’d sat down by the water had been enough to mostly process the day and remind yourself a few times that everything that had ever gone wrong since you’d gotten here wasn’t your fault and that it was okay to blame the people actually responsible. You’d also managed to calm down the thoughts trying to make you believe that Owen was just playing with you, logic reminding you that Owen was absolutely not like that. He wasn’t kissing you to have a laugh at your expense or take advantage of your feelings for him. He’d told you after dinner that he cared about you, that he liked the way his affection made you smile. Those weren’t the motives of someone trying to play with you. Even when you didn’t notice it Owen was looking out for you, noticing the things that upset you and going out of his way to make sure you didn’t have to deal with them often or at all if possible. It still made your heart start racing when he sat down next to you.

“You look like you’re getting ready to take off on me again.”

“I’m not, I’m just…” Just like earlier you weren’t sure how to say how you were feeling at that particular moment.

“Not very articulate when you’re nervous?” You nodded and he scooted a little closer to you, still staying so that his back was to the table and he was facing the opposite direction you were. “So show me instead, push me off the bench, stab me with your fork, tear my clothes off. Whatever you need to do.” He wasn’t anticipating any of the three but he was hoping to relieve at least a little bit of the tension and give you the chance to make whatever move you felt like making.

You weren’t sure how to even physically show that you felt stupid for getting so bent out of shape over this, that having him that close to you made you nervous but not in a bad way. All you could come up with was to try kissing him again and not jumping off his lap and running this time. That didn’t exactly express your nerves or anything else but him being right there was making you antsy and you could tell that your delay had him starting to worry. Your hands were shaking as you took a deep breath and turned towards him but you felt yourself freeze before you could do anything. The complete lack of nerve made you feel utterly deflated and frustrated.

“Alright, that wasn’t supposed to get you flustered and upset baby,” Owen tried to sooth. Sometimes he really wished that when you got frustrated with something your eyes didn’t well up with tears because he absolutely hated seeing you crying over something. “So how about I try showing you, you don’t like it just give me a shove or something?” Your heart jumped a little hearing him call you baby, not helped by his arm slipping around your waist after you nodded.

This time when his lips met yours you didn’t jump away or panic, no more thoughts trying to creep in and ruin the moment. You let him pull you closer and you melted in to him. This time you were perfectly content to be pulled on to his lap, grateful that the change strained your neck less and let you drape your arms around his neck as you deepened the kiss yourself. The way Owen kept shifting you kept waiting for him to pin you against the bench, not that you would have objected either way.

“You’re not that subtle either,” You half teased when he pulled away from you.

“About what?” About the fact that it was an uphill battle fighting himself to keep his body under control and not just lay you out right there and do what he’d very much like to? Probably, he kept fidgeting especially when you’d shift right to the middle of his lap. You weren’t exactly still when you kissed him and the way you shifted against him made him desperately want to take this a lot further.

“How bad you want to,” You started, finishing with the same vaguely obscene hand gesture you’d seen him make before which made him crack up. You were at least nice about it, you could’ve made things worse for him but you got the feeling he was trying to not lay it all on you at once. “You do, don’t even lie.”

“Baby, we don’t have the time for me to do what I want to do to you without being real late for work and that’s not how I want everyone thinking of us.” He could absolutely just make you both late, your body language was practically screaming that you’d let him but he knew that if you both showed up late as hell and together the next day exactly what everyone would assume. Like hell he’d have everyone thinking you were his fuck buddy. “Believe me any other time and we’d have been inside already.”

“We probably shouldn’t anyway, it’s already been a really long day.” You conceded. Of course you wanted him, you’d been crazy about him for so long, had so many fantasies about how far it could go but it had been a long and stressful day. You didn’t need to throw that in too and just be rushing right in to all of it. “But we have a day off pretty soon.” If by that time your hormones had calmed the hell down and decided to not be so in to the idea of sleeping with Owen right then and there you were sure he’d be fine with it. Otherwise you could make some plans now, pull another night that you showed up early for dinner.

“Once you get going you just don’t quit do you.” Owen laughed, almost surprised by not quite by how enthusiastic you were being about all of this. “Think about this a lot?”

“Gets lonely sleeping alone doesn’t it?” Well you weren’t going to lie.

“Don’t put those thoughts in my head!”

“What, me alone at night thinking about you while I,” 

“Quit it you trouble maker.” Trying to act like you were playing nice when you were sticking him with thoughts that he was who you thought about late at night in the privacy of your bed. It made him feel slightly less of a pervert having done the same with you but good god that was not the train of thought he needed to be having right now. Especially not with the way you just smirked at him when he removed you from his lap. “I’m being serious baby, you can wait until the end of the week and so can I.” In his head that still sounded like rushing in to things but you’d known each other a while and the only real reason he was holding off was because he wanted the time to be able to take his time with you and not just drag you off to bed the second you had your tongues in each other’s mouths.

“Well you can expect I’ll show up early.”

“You better, you still owe me for taking off earlier. Rob me of our quality time.”

“You’re such a strange guy you know that?” Well maybe not, he was just a good guy that valued actually spending time with you. Both of you knew he could have you right then if he chose to, that the only reason you weren’t was because he said he’d prefer to hold off and you respected that enough to not push it. You worked around enough guys to know that most of them didn’t even need to think that you were after something to start trying to push you for it and if you told one of them you’d show up early spending quality time together wouldn’t be what the planned on doing.

“You don’t seem to mind it,” Owen pointed out.

"I don't, I like that you care more about spending time with me than seeing how quick you can get my pants off.”

“I know how quick I can get your pants off,” Owen teased, picking a few remaining chunks of wood out of your hair. “Didn’t think you’d be so eager.”

“I started crushing on you because you’re gorgeous, and you make a habit of popping out of your bungalow with clothes on.”

“It’s only been a few times!”

“Fine, habit of appearing in various states of undress, especially without your shirt on. Of course a girl gets ideas.”

“Fair enough. You gonna stop tripping on everything now?”

“I’d definitely like to try, the sprains and bruises are getting a little old.”

“You’re lucky you haven’t hurt yourself worse.”

“I wouldn’t call it lucky, you always catch me before I end up hurting myself. I just have a very on it protector, yeah never mind I think I’m really lucky.”

“I thought I was supposed to say the sappy cute shit.” Owen laughed “Like telling you that you’re prettier than the girls.”

“We can take turns, not my fault you do sappy cute shit that I can point out to be sappy and cute myself. You brought this on yourself taking the liberty of acting like my personal hero since day one.”

"I’m your hero hmm?”

“Well yeah, I think I’ve said that before at least once before. You’ve always kind of been my hero.”

“Thought you were joking.”

“Aww, now who is the one getting flustered,” You laughed “That your way of telling me to go home?” You questioned when you felt him press your keys into your hand.

“Up to you, if you want to go home you can.” Of course he didn’t necessarily want you to go but he’d been holding your keys hostage since he practically kidnapped you from the paddock. He wasn’t sure how long you wanted to stay but he should at least give you the option to leave when you wanted to. “And if you want to hang around that’s fine, figured you’d probably want your keys back eventually.”

“I assumed you hid them from me so I couldn’t hide. What about if I want to spend the night hmm?”

“Depends on if you can behave yourself.”

“I’ll be back.” You promised, getting up to head to the jeep. “Do the dishes or something.”

Owen wasn’t sure what your point in leaving was considering you planned to come back but because you planned to come back he actually did get up to clean everything up from dinner. He didn’t want the mess sitting around and have something to distract him from enjoying the chance to spend the time with you. Better to just get everything cleaned up now, as it was he figured you’d be back before he even got done. He was reasonably sure that he hadn’t sped through the dishes but you still hadn’t gotten back. Assuming you’d probably gone home and fallen asleep Owen decided to change for bed himself even if he ended up lying around a while.

Part of your hold-up had been your indecisiveness. You didn’t want to have to come back home in the morning to get ready for work so throwing a change of clothes and anything else you needed in a bag was no problem. You wore the same general things to work every day, your morning ritual basically involved a face wipe and some mascara to make you look less asleep and you only showered after work because you saw no point in showering to immediately get gross again. Sleepwear was a tougher choice. What you slept in varied wildly based on your mood. Sometimes in nothing, sometimes in just your panties, sometimes in a big shirt, sometimes in actual pajamas. You nixed nude and underwear since you were supposed to behave but spent a considerable time before settling on a tank top and shorts. You left your jeep figuring you’d just make Owen either take you or drop you to grab it in the morning so by the time you got back he’d already gone inside.

“I was almost expecting you to sleep naked,” You commented when you walked in, he was pretty close to it but not quite. “No, I definitely remember bare ass from twice when I had to come get you because you overslept.”

“Then you forgot when I stopped sleeping naked if I thought you’d show up, considering you had a tendency to injure yourself at the sight of me.” Owen shot back, patting the spot next to him. “Can’t tell you to behave if I’m not going to.”

“It’s really difficult to choose what to sleep in when you have to take that in to account,” You responded, trying to decide the best way to curl up next to him.

“It took you that long to put on a tank top and shorts?”

“I have a lot of pajamas, most of which I don’t wear. I couldn’t remember which ones I didn’t like. It took me less time to grab my stuff for tomorrow than it did to pick pajamas.” You elaborated, finally satisfied with how your arms were as you settled in with your head on his shoulder. “I’m slow, I can’t help it.”

“Good thing I’m a patient man,” He murmured to you, kissing the top of your head as his arm wrapped around you.

“You’re so awesome.” You muttered, closing your eyes. “Night Owen.”

“Night baby,” He returned, pulling the blanket up over you.


End file.
